Tag: Wikipedia

A few years ago I read a post by Jed Hartman wherein he listed all of the various organizations and charities he donates money to, usually at the end of the year. I’ve rarely been in a financial position to be a generous donor — one of the reasons I volunteer my time, instead — but this year I have a small bit of extra money and some worthy entities I want to support. And since I can never keep my mouth shut about the things I’m passionate about, I shall also take this opportunity to encourage you to join me in supporting them. It’s only a slightly evil plan, I know. Next time I will do better.

First up: It’s just been a few weeks since the Carl Brandon eReader Drawing fundraiser ended, so you might be a bit burned on this one. However, the Society is in the midst of another fund drive, this time to benefit their general fund. SF3 — the parent org of WisCon — recently awarded CBS a $2000 challenge grant. That means they will match any donations made in December and January up to $2K. The Drawing didn’t count toward this since all the money we raised in November is earmarked for the Butler Scholarship. Any general fundraising will support other activities of the Society, including the Parallax and Kindred awards. You can make a donation via PayPal here. However, if you send a check to the address on that page, CBS gets to keep more of your donation.

Next: If you’ve used Wikipedia any time in the last few months you probably noticed the banner at the top asking for donations. They are apparently within 1.1 million of reaching their goal, and I intend to donate. I know a lot of people scoff at Wikipedia, but I find it to be an incredibly useful resource for some information. I am on the site at least once a day, usually more. And having written an article about Wikipedia lately, I have an even greater appreciation of how important it’s become and how much work the Wikimedia Foundation puts into the site. Click here to donate.

Finally: As much as NPR sometimes makes me roll my eyes, I have to admit that public radio is a constant part of my life. I wake up to it every morning, I’m always downloading podcasts, and I’ve even been a guest. So I’m going to send a bit of change to WNYC and WBAI (which is Pacifica, not NPR). And, who knows, someday you might hear me on the radio begging you to send us money so we can continue operating. I promise, I will not be as annoying or horrifying as Ira Glass.

I have some commentary up about wikis, both large, famous ones like Wikipedia and small ones with narrow focus.

The Carl Brandon wiki-ers ran into [some ugliness on Wikipedia] pretty soon after they started heavily editing, when a category they created–People of Color in SF–was nominated for deletion…

…This led to Carl Brandon members renewing their interest in having a CBS wiki, just as FeministSF.net has an FSFWiki. I think this is a great idea for many reasons, not the least of which is the nastiness one often experiences on Wikipedia. That nastiness has a few things at its core. One being that some people have serious power issues and play them out in whatever venue allows them to–Wikipedia is an easy fiefdom to conquer, if one has the time and no life. Another being that American culture, the culture which many people contributing to the English language Wikipedia are steeped in, often devalues the contributions of women and minorities, but does so in a backhanded way: by claiming that their contributions shouldn’t be called out on the basis of race or gender or nationality, but instead thrown in with the “mainstream”, which just happens to be overwhelmingly populated by white males.